The Chief Minister announced measures to improve health facilities in the state.

Shimla:

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu on Friday presented the first annual budget of his tenure for the financial year 2023-24 in the state assembly.

The Chief Minister announced that Himachal Pradesh would be made a model state for adoption of electric vehicles in public transport in the state.

A total of 1,500 diesel buses would be replaced at a cost of Rs 1,000 crore, he added.

To promote tourism, Sukhwinder Singh Sikhu said that Kangra district would be developed as tourism capital and all the 12 districts would be connected with heliport facility in next one year.

The state’s GDP growth has been sluggish during 2022-23 and has declined to 6.4 per cent as compared to the growth of 7.6 per cent recorded in 2021-22.

“We have come to work for the welfare of the people and have restored the old pension scheme benefiting around 1.36 employees of the state,” he said.

The state has a huge debt and other liabilities of Rs 75,000 crore due to arrears of revised pay scales and payment of dearness allowance of Rs 11,000 crore.

The supplementary demands for grants of Rs 13,141 crore for 2022-23 were passed by the House on March 15.

The Chief Minister said that his government will fulfill all the promises made to the people during the elections in a phased manner.

In the first phase, 2,31,000 women would get Rs 1,500 per month as promised, he said, adding that the payment would cost the exchequer Rs 416 crore per year.

The Chief Minister also announced measures to improve health facilities in the state.

He said that casualty wards in all medical colleges would be upgraded to emergency medicine department and all five medical colleges would have robotic technology.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)